Private information storage device and private information management device

ABSTRACT

The events experienced are stored automatically, so that the information of higher utility for a user may be taken out with responsiveness and efficiency higher than is possible with a technique of keyword retrieval over a network. A private information storage device and a private information management device are provided in which information pertinent to an event experienced by a user is stored and managed so as to be read out, whereby the information may be taken out with higher responsiveness than with the technique of keyword retrieval over the network, while the selected information may be taken out from the extracted information more efficaciously, and the information taken out is highly useful for the user.

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 10/963,433, filedOct. 12, 2004, which claims the priority benefit of Japanese patentapplication number 2003-352896, filed in the Japanese Patent Office onOct. 10, 2003, which is hereby incorporated by reference to the maximumextent allowable by law.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to a private information storage device and aprivate information management device in which the information pertinentto the event experienced by a user and the information privatelyrequired by the user are stored in a correlated fashion.

2. Description of Related Art

Recently, with the progress in the network structure, such as theso-called Internet, and with the widespread use of a large-capacityrecording medium, an environment is being created for providing oracquiring the voluminous information. In keeping up therewith, a largevariety of information providing services have been proposed and, inthese information providing services, attempts are being made forhandling a large quantity of the information efficiently andefficaciously.

As an example, the information providing party extracts the taste ofeach user as an information accepting party to feature each individualto supply the information or services best fitted to each suchindividual (personalization of the information provided). This techniqueis used in on-line services allowing for purchase of articles ofcommerce from a site on the Internet. By introducing the informationpersonalization, the services which allow for purchase of books on theInternet have realized the function of presenting recommended books to auser who purchased a book, from a list of works of the author of thebook purchased by the user, the function of presenting other bookspurchased by other users who purchased the same book as that purchasedby the user, the function of the apprising other users of theinformation the user feels useful for these other users.

The party accepting the information (the party browsing the information)is able to change the operating conditions or setting according to thetaste of the user (customization). For example, the responsiveproperties of a mouse, the window coloring or the fonts can be changed.

Such as system which, by the above information personalization orcustomization, enables the efficient and efficacious use of theinformation, has already been known. As a developing phase of thepersonalization, such techniques as real-time profiling of the user'sbehavior on the network, learning the user's operating habit to providethe user with the GUI suited to the user's taste, or monitoring theuser's reaction to observe the taste or the reaction of the user to thecontents recommended by an agent.

As described above, the so-called push-type information furnishing, inwhich the information supplied by the provider is tailored to theindividual user to provide a party desiring the information or serviceswith the optimum information, becomes possible, while the partyaccepting the information may acquire the desired information extremelyreadily.

However, for tailoring the information provided to each individual(personalization), the information provider has to collect theindividual-level information, by enquetes, through paper medium orInternet sites, or to collect the behavior hysteresis (purchasehysteresis of books in the above example) of the individual users. Amongthe information providing services, employing the Internet, there issuch a service consisting in collecting the fee information pertinent toa marriage ceremony, a reception hall, an English school or a variety ofculture schools, or the information pertinent to the atmosphere orservice contents, from those who utilized these in the past, such as byenquetes, fitting the collected results to the rules already determined,and by displaying together the matched information, that is, theinformation pertinent to establishments or the experience informationfrom the user, on a display image surface, to provide a latent user withthe information in determining the establishments or the serviceproviders.

If, in these information providing services, the information is to bemade available among plural users, the retrieving step in retrieving thedesired information from a large quantity of the text information issimplified by having the user intending to lay open his/her experiencedata furnish the information, depending on the experience level, and byvisualizing the collected experience data of the users in order for theuser retrieving the information to acquire the information of highfidelity (information close to the desired information), as disclosedfor example in Patent Publication 1.

In the technique described in this Patent Publication 1, the majority ofthe information, collected from those who already exploited the ceremonyhalls and reception halls, is the text information, and hence it isdifficult to recognize readily whether or not the information contentson which the user places emphasis are contained in the text informationfurnished. Thus, with the conventional system, a large quantity of thetext information, which inherently is not needed, has to be read, suchthat it is frequently difficult to find the information needed by theuser.

The majority of the techniques for tailoring the furnished informationto the individual (personalization) consist in the information providerusing intricate artifices to extract a user taste model. Theseconventional techniques are used for information management for suchcases where services desired by the individual users are provided, orwhere the information is co-owned by plural users. However, thesetechniques do not reflect variegated tastes of the individual users inneed of the information.

-   [Patent Publication 1] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication    2003-16202

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a privateinformation storage device and a private information management devicein which the information pertinent to the event experienced by the useris stored and managed so as to be read out, whereby the information maybe taken out with higher responsiveness than with the technique ofkeyword retrieval over the network, while the selected information maybe taken out from the extracted information more efficaciously, and theinformation taken out is highly useful for the user.

In one aspect, the present invention provides a private informationstorage device including information acquisition means for acquiringexperience information pertinent to an event experienced by a user;private information adding means for adding private information,privately needed by the user, to the acquired experience information;information inferring means for generating predictive informationinferable from the experience information and the private information;and storage means for putting the experience information, the privateinformation and the predictive information into order for enabling theretrieval and for storing the three information thus put into ordertherein.

In another aspect, the present invention provides a method for storingthe private information including acquiring experience informationpertinent to an event experienced by a user; adding private informationprivately needed by the user to the experience information acquired;generating predictive information inferable from the experienceinformation and the private information; and putting the experienceinformation, the private information and the predictive information intoorder for permitting retrieval to store the three information thus putinto order therein.

In a further aspect, the present invention provides a privateinformation management device including information acquisition meansfor acquiring experience information pertinent to an event experiencedby a user; private information adding means for adding privateinformation, privately needed by a user, to the experience informationacquired; information inferring means for generating predictiveinformation inferable from the experience information and the privateinformation; storage means for putting the experience information, theprivate information and the predictive information into order forenabling retrieval to store the three information thus pit into ordertherein; retrieval inputting means for inputting a retrieval conditionby the user; information presenting means for presenting information tothe user; and information retrieval presentation controlling means forretrieving the fitting information from the experience information, theprivate information and the predictive information stored in storagemeans, based on the retrieval condition entered by the retrievalinputting means, to present the retrieved information to the informationpresenting means.

In yet another aspect, the present invention provides a privateinformation management method including acquiring experience informationpertinent to an event experienced by a user; adding private information,privately needed by the user, to the experience information acquired;generating predictive information inferable from the experienceinformation and the private information; putting the experienceinformation, the private information and the predictive information forenabling retrieval to store the three information thus put into ordertherein; and retrieving the fitting information from the empiricalinformation, the private information and the predictive information thusstored, based on a retrieving condition input by the user, to presentthe information retrieved.

With the private information storage device, according to the presentinformation, it is possible to store the private information as well asthe information pertinent to an event experienced by the user, in such amanner as to remind the user of the experience of the event.

Moreover, with the private information storage device, according to thepresent invention, the user may be reminded of the event, he/sheexperienced in the past, while the information pertinent to anunexperienced event may be predicted from the experienced event andpresented to the user. Thus, the retrieval may be made with higherresponsiveness than is possible with keyword retrieval on the network.The processing of selecting the desired information from the extractedinformation is efficacious and highly useful for individuals.

The present invention proposes a scheme of storing the informationpertinent to the event experienced by the user and the informationneeded by the user for utilization later on. In a concrete example ofthe present invention, the information needed by the user is termed theprivate information. The user's private information is a mark appliedfor comprehensibly indicating the information acquired and desired to beused again, or an evaluation value pertinent to the acquiredinformation, and is entered in association with the informationpertinent to the event experienced by the user.

According to the present invention, the date and time of a user'sexperience, as well as the image and the speech then recorded, arestored as the information pertinent to the event experienced by theuser. The additional information as entered by the user in connectionwith the experienced event is handled as the private information. Forexample, if a user has purchased a certain commodity, the information onthe date/time of purchase or the position of the store where thecommodity was purchased, represents the information on the experiencedevent, whilst the user's impression or the lesson, obtained form theexperience, such as the evaluation on the site of the store, on theservices rendered or on the purchased commodity, or the grounds for suchevaluation, and which is entered as ‘memoranda’, represents the user'sprivate information.

According to the present invention, even if an event has not beenexperienced by a user, the information pertinent to such event may begenerated and stored. For example, the present invention is featured bythe fact that, if the weather was bad when the user visited a certainplace, such that the comprehensive evaluation was bad, it is inferredthat, if the weather was “good”, such comprehensive evaluation will havebeen higher, so that such data as weather “good” and “comprehensiveevaluation” are generated and rendered available. Thus, according to thepresent invention, the experience information, the private information,the predictive information generated from the two information, theuser's impression on the experience, cases of success and failure, orthe information tantamount to the lesson, are stored, along with theexperience information, as the marks or evaluation values are annexedfor use later.

For exploiting the stored information, it is sufficient that the userinputs the retrieving conditions. By so doing, the information on pastanalogous experiences, if any, and/or the information analogous to thepredicted information, if any, may be taken out. For example, if theuser visited the same place in the past, the private information, suchas the data and time of the visit, the information on e.g. thecommodities then purchased and the evaluation then given, are presented.Moreover, the information that, although the evaluation then given wasnot bad, the evaluation will be better if the condition is changed, ifthere is any such information, is presented.

According to the present invention, the information pertinent to theevent experienced by the user and the information inferred from theexperienced event are stored. Since it is sufficient that theinformation is presented from storage means which may be retrieved laterby a keyword, the device of the present invention may be such a one inwhich the storage means is provided on the network. Although theinformation derived from the experiences of the individual users may bedesigned to be used solely by the user in person, the informationderived from the experiences of the individual users may also beco-owned by other users.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for illustrating a private informationmanagement device as a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates private information management employing the privateinformation management device shown as a concrete example of the presentinvention.

FIG. 3 illustrates the structure of the private information managementdevice.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of the current information acquired in theinformation exploitation phase in the private information managementdevice.

FIG. 5 illustrates the predictive information inferable from the eventexperienced by the user in the data processing unit in the privateinformation management device.

FIG. 6 similarly illustrates the predictive information inferable fromthe event experienced by the user in the data processing unit in theprivate information management device.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart for illustrating information registrationprocessing in an information registration phase in the privateinformation management device.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for illustrating information extraction processingin an information exploitation phase in the private informationmanagement device.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of the experience information acquired inthe private information management device.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of the experience information acquired inthe private information management device.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of the current information acquired inthe information exploitation phase in the private information managementdevice.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example of the retrieval conditions entered inthe information exploitation phase in the private information managementdevice.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example of data used as the retrieval conditionin the private information management device.

FIG. 14 illustrates an example of data displayed as the retrieved resultin the private information management device.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 shows schematics of a private information management device 1,shown as a concrete example of the present invention. The privateinformation management device 1 includes an information registrationunit 10 for the information registration phase pertinent to informationinputting, a means for storing these information, and an informationexploitation unit 30 pertinent to information outputting for theinformation exploitation phase exploiting the so acquired informationlater.

The private information management device 1 includes, as the informationregistration unit 10, an information acquisition unit 11 for acquiringthe information pertinent to an experienced event, a private informationadding unit 12 for adding the private information, a data recognitionprocessing unit 13 for recognizing the acquired information, a datadefinition processing unit 14 for classifying the recognized data inaccordance with the predetermined definition, and a data storage unit 15for storage of the data classified according to the definition.

The information acquisition unit 11 is a means for acquiring theinformation around the user, and includes a means capable of acquiringthe image information, speech information, position information andtime/date, such as a camera, microphone or GPS. The data recognitionprocessing unit 13 performs the processing of extracting the specifiedinformation from e.g. the image information, speech information,position information or time/date, as acquired by a camera, microphoneor GPS. The data recognition processing unit 13 includes an imagerecognition unit 16, a text processing unit 17 and a speech processingunit 18. The image and the text of the image data acquired from thecamera is subjected to image recognition processing and text recognitionprocessing, by the image recognition unit 16 and the text processingunit 17, to extract specified image and text data. The speech dataacquired from the microphone is processed by a speech recognition unit19 to recognize the speech. The speech information is converted intotext data by a language processing unit 20, and key data is extractedfrom the converted text data by a keyword extraction unit 21.

The data extracted by the data recognition processing unit 13 isclassified in the data definition processing unit 14 in accordance withpredetermined definitions. Examples of the definitions include an imageof a person, the identification information pertinent to the image ofthe person, such as family, brothers/sisters, spouse, place of work,friends, age groups, place of residence or nationality, the degree ofdensity as verified from image data (low or high), sort of the building,as verified from image data (sort of the service works, as may besurmised from placards), name of the buildings (letter/characterstrings), time/date, weather (fine, rainy or cloudy), atmospherictemperature (high or low), humidity (high or low), wind (strong orweak), position information (latitude, longitude or altitude), closeststation, common name that may be understood only by the user, evaluationvalue and items of evaluation (conditions of site, evaluation of thesalespeople, evaluation of goods, atmosphere of store, pricing, time ofsupplying cooking and other conditions). The acquired data areclassified based on these definitions. The data storage unit 15 holdsthe data classified based on the above definitions.

A data processing unit 22 generates the experience information notactually experienced by the user but which is pertinent to theexperienced event, and the predictive information, which may be inferredfrom the private information as input by the user, puts the experienceinformation, private information and the predictive information intoorder such as to enable the retrieval, and causes the three informationsorts in storage means. As an example, the private information is the‘value’ imparted to the experience information pertinent to the eventexperienced by the user. The data processing unit 22 generates predictedvalues for the evaluated values, imparted from the user, on the occasionof the condition changes, as the predictive information.

The case of exploiting the private information of the user, registeredin the information registration unit 10, is hereinafter explained.

The private information management device 1 includes, as the informationexploitation unit 30, an information acquisition unit 31, for acquiringthe current state, a retrieval inputting unit 32, supplied with theretrieving conditions, a data recognition processing unit 33 forrecognizing the acquired information, a retrieving unit 34 forextracting the information conforming to the retrieving conditions orthe analogous information from the data storage unit 15, and aninformation presenting unit 35 for presenting the extracted informationto the user.

The information acquisition unit 31 and the data recognition processingunit 33 acquire and recognize the position information of the currentsite, and the other information, by a method similar to that of theinformation registration phase. The retrieval inputting unit 32 issupplied with the retrieving conditions by the user. The inputtingmethods include the speech input, text input or the image input. In casethe speech is input to the retrieval inputting unit 32, the datarecognition processing unit 33 extracts the keyword pertinent to thetime, site and the person from the text. In case the text data is inputto the retrieval inputting unit 32, the data recognition processing unit33 extracts the keyword from the text and, in case the image data isinput to the retrieval inputting unit 32, the data recognitionprocessing unit 33 extracts the keyword from the image. The datarecorded in schedule management software may also be used.

The retrieving unit 34 includes a presentation data inferring unit 27,for extracting the information, analogous to the retrieving conditions,from the data storage unit 15, and a presentation data retrieving unit28, for extracting the information matched to the retrieving condition,from the data storage unit 15. In retrieving the information from thedata storage unit 15, the database management system, used in theinformation registration unit 10, is used for retrieval. The informationextracted by the retrieving unit is presented to the user by theinformation presenting unit 35 by the text data, audio guide, or theimage display, taken alone or in combination.

In connection with an event experienced by the user, the present privateinformation management device 1 is able to store the informationpertinent to the experience, and the private information, such as toremind the user of the experience. Moreover, the private informationmanagement device 1 is able to predict the information on anunexperienced event, from the event directly experienced by the user,and hence is able to store the information which is in excess of theinformation corresponding to the actual experience of the user.Additionally, since the information being retrieved is the informationcollected on the basis of the user's experience, the information ofhigher utility for a user may be taken out with responsiveness andefficiency higher than with a technique of keyword retrieval over anetwork, while the desired information may be efficaciously selectedfrom the extracted information, thus allowing taking out the informationof high utility and efficiency.

The present invention is also featured by the fact that the registrantin person exploits the information managed by the private informationmanagement device 1. For this reason, the information obtained from theexperience of the user, or the private information, such as impression,evaluation or lesson for the experienced event, does not have to begeneralized, but may be recorded in a form that may be understood solelyby the user. It is preferable that the information pertinent to theexperienced event is automatically acquired by the camera, microphone orthe GPS, as far as is possible, as in the example described above. Theprivate information management device 1 according to the presentinvention is desirable under the circumstances that, in actuality, theuser feels it difficult to leave a ‘memorandum’ consciously inconnection with an event experienced by the user, and is liable to losethe chance of recording the crucial information, such that, if similarchance presents itself again, it is not possible to take advantage ofthe previous experience.

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, the private information management device 1,as a concrete example of the present invention, is explained in detail.FIG. 2 separately shows the information registration phase and theinformation exploitation phase, both of which are carried out using theprivate information management device 1. FIG. 3 shows a specifiedexample of the private information management device 1. In the presentconcrete example, the case of a user having a meal in a restaurant(store) is explained. Consequently, the information registration phaseis the phase of registering the information of the surrounding in theuser having a meal in a restaurant, and the private information at thistime, while the information exploitation phase is a phase of taking outthe past information pertinent to the restaurant at the next chance.

Since it is crucial for a user experiencing an event to be carrying theprivate information management device 1, the private informationmanagement device 1 in the present concrete example is of the mobiletype. Even though the private information management device is of themobile type, it may be connectable to a device corresponding to e.g. astationary PC 100 or a server device for household use so that theinformation acquired may be stored therein. In this case, it issufficient that the data storage unit 15 of the private informationmanagement device 1 is provided independently on the side of thestationary PC 100 or of the server device so that the information willbe transmitted/received wirelessly or over a wired communicationinterface between data storage unit and the main body unit of theprivate information management device 1.

Referring to FIG. 3, the private information management device 1includes a GPS 41 for acquiring the position information, a CCD (chargecoupled device) 42 for acquiring the information around the user, and amicrophone 43. These components serve as the information acquisitionunit 11 for the information registration phase and as the informationacquisition unit 31 for the information exploitation phase, shown inFIG. 1. In this private information management device 1, image data andvoice data are automatically acquired, without operations by the user.The CCD 42 and the microphone 43 transfer to a mode of generating andstoring storage form data, based on a data model, at a preset timeinterval, or with changes in the environment around the user, forstoring the data. For example, detection of a large sudden sound, ordetection of a keyword specified by a keyword extraction unit 51, isused as a trigger for information acquisition. In the explanation of thepresent concrete example, the information around the user, acquired bythe information acquisition unit 11, is termed the experienceinformation, as necessary.

The private information management device 1 also includes an evaluationinputting key 44, as a private information addition unit 12 for the userto add the private information, and an operating input unit 45 for aretrieval input in the information exploitation phase or for anoperating input for this device. The evaluation inputting key 44 may bea simple pushbutton for inputting points corresponding to the number oftimes of pressing operations, or an operating input key, such as aten-key, capable of directly inputting the evaluation values. In thepresent concrete example, the evaluation of ‘best’, ‘acceptable’,‘good’, ‘bad’ and ‘worst’ is given, depending on the number of times ofthe pressing operations. The evaluation input from the evaluationinputting key 44 does not necessarily have to be entered simultaneouslywith the experience of the user. That is, the evaluation input may bemade, in connection with the experienced event, at a time later than thetime of the information acquisition.

The private information management device 1 may be provided with astructure for acquiring the weather information, such as atmospherictemperature, humidity or weather, as a structure corresponding to theinformation acquisition unit 11, in addition to the above-describedstructure. The technique for acquiring the position information or theweather information may be exemplified by having the positioninformation or the weather information periodically distributed inaddition to receiving the base station information periodicallytransmitted from the base station, as is already realized in the fieldof a mobile phone. The private information management device 1 may alsobe provided with a simple temperature or humidity sensor.

The private information management device 1 includes an imagerecognition unit 46, a sentence recognition unit 47 and a speechrecognition unit 48 for recognizing the image data, sentence data andspeech data acquired, respectively. The image recognition unit 46executes image recognition processing on the image data acquired fromthe CCD 42. For example, it executes the processing of recognizing andextracting a face portion of a person. The sentence recognition unit 47executes text recognition processing on image data acquired from the CCD42. For example, it executes the processing of recognizingletter/character strings or symbols in the image, such asletters/characters in a placard, to extract the name of the building orthe sign as text data. The speech recognition unit 48 includes a speechrecognition processing unit 49, a language processing unit 50, and akeyword extraction unit 51. The speech recognition processing unit 49recognizes and processes speech data acquired from the microphone 43 asspeech. The language processing unit 50 converts the speech data intotext data, and the keyword extraction unit 51 extracts the key word fromthe as-converted text data.

The private information management device 1 also includes a datadefinition processing unit 52 for giving definitions to the dataextracted by the image recognition unit 46, sentence recognition unit 47and the speech recognition unit 48. The data definition processing unit52 is equivalent to the data definition processing unit 14 for theinformation registration phase and to the retrieving unit 34 for theinformation exploitation phase, and classifies the extracted data inaccordance with the pre-determined definitions or retrieves theinformation from a database 53 in accordance with the retrievingconditions.

In the database 53 of the private information management device 1, thereare registered, for example, image data and text data stating theinformation pertinent to the image data. For example, for image data ofa face of a person, there are stored names, addresses, sites of contactor ages of friends in associated manner. There is also stored theinformation of families, brothers/sisters, spouse, people in the placeof work, friends, and so forth, if any, that are pertinent to thisperson. The persons, sorts or names of the buildings (letter/characterstrings), as determined from image data, text data and speech data,extracted by the image recognition unit 46, sentence recognition unit 47and the speech recognition unit 48, are compared to data stored in thedatabase 53, so as to be classified and stored as new data. Among thedefinitions, there are, for example, the position information (latitude,longitude or altitude), time/date data, weather information (fine, rainyor cloudy), atmospheric temperature (high or low), humidity (high orlow), wind (strong or weak), closest station, common names that may beunderstood only by the user, evaluation values and items of evaluation(conditions of site, evaluation of the salespeople, evaluation of goods,atmosphere of store, pricing, time of supplying cooking and otherconditions). The acquired data are classified based on thesedefinitions.

The private information management device 1 also includes a dataprocessing unit 59 corresponding to the data processing unit 22 shown inFIG. 1. The data processing unit 59 generates the predictive informationinferable from the private information and the experience informationextracted by the above components and which have been defined by thedata definition processing unit 52. Specifically, the data processingunit 59 is provided with predicted evaluation values corresponding tothe evaluated values which were afforded by the user on the subjects ofevaluation exemplified by the conditions of site, salespeople,commodities, atmosphere of the store, price setting, cooking presentingtime and so forth, and which will prevail in case the conditions havechanged. That is, if the evaluation values are set in five stages andthe value of “1” is afforded as the private information, it is set to“5”, as an example, whereas, if “−3” is afforded for the setting of “−5to +5”, it is set to “3”, and the new evaluation value obtained here isused as the predictive information.

FIG. 4 shows data extracted from the private information and theexperience information acquired. It is assumed that, although data isentered only insofar as it is necessary for explanation, forconvenience, data are also entered in the void cells. The evaluationhere is given by five stages of ‘best’, ‘acceptable’, ‘good’, ‘bad’ and‘worst’. FIG. 5 shows the predictive information generated by the dataprocessing unit 59 on the assumption that the weather is good. Since theconditions for site are bad in the case of FIG. 5, it may be inferredfrom the predictive information that, if the weather is good, thecomprehensive evaluation may be better despite the bad conditions forsite. FIG. 6 shows the predictive information for different time zones.The information indicates that, if the time zone is the night, theatmosphere may be best.

The predictive information may be automatically generated by the dataprocessing unit 59. The user may be prompted to make input as the guideas to what will be the atmosphere under certain and certain conditionsis presented to the user by e.g. the software processing.

The data acquired and defined are model-converted, in accordance with adata model, and stored in the database 53, using a database managementsystem (DBMS). Examples of the techniques for model conversion includethe technique consisting in defining the data in a tabulated form andmanaging the tabulated data in accordance with the DBMS with use of arelational database (RDB), and a technique of classifying the data usingthe RDFs-OWL and managing the so classified data in accordance with theDBMS with use of RDFDB or XMLDB. The information pertinent to the eventexperienced by the user, or the private information, stored in thedatabase 53, may be edited later, if so desired by the user.

The private information management device 1 also includes, as astructure for presenting the information to the user, an LCD 54, asdisplay, a display device 55, a loudspeaker 56 and a speech outputtingdevice 57.

The above-described structures are comprehensively controlled by a CPU,a ROM having stored therein e.g. processing programs, and a controller58, provided with a RAM, as a work area for the CPU.

Referring to FIGS. 2, 7 and 8, the case of registering the informationpertinent to the experienced event (experience information) and theprivate information, by a user, with the aid of the aforementionedprivate information management device 1, is hereinafter explained. FIGS.7 and 8 illustrate the information registration processing for a casewhere a user has a meal in a restaurant (store) and the informationexploitation processing of subsequent exploitation of the registeredinformation, respectively.

First, the case where the user acquires the experience information in arestaurant 200 and the private information, is explained. When the user,carrying the aforementioned private information management device 1,takes a meal in the restaurant 200 (arrow A in FIG. 2), the informationpertinent to the experienced event is acquired by the privateinformation management device 1 (arrow B in FIG. 2). The informationacquired here is classified into the experience information and theprivate information. The experience information is mainly acquiredautomatically by the private information management device 1. Theprivate information is entered by the user (arrow C in FIG. 2). It isnoted that the private information may or may not be enteredsimultaneously with the acquisition of the information pertinent to theexperienced event.

As for the timing of the acquisition of the experience information, itis sufficient if the user sets the mode of automatically acquiring theinformation at a preset interval before walking into the restaurant 200.However, in a usual case, the user cannot consciously execute this modesetting operation. According to the present invention, the informationpertinent to the experienced event is desirably acquired without theuser becoming conscious about it, and hence the experience informationis to be acquired automatically, with changes in the surrounding statesas a trigger, as far as is possible. For example, if a sentence “May Ihelp you?” is defined at the outset, as a keyword for trigger, the dataformulating mode is entered when the user steps into the restaurant 200and the private information management device 1 has detected thesentence “May I help you?” operating as a trigger (steps S1 and S2 ofFIG. 7).

FIG. 9 shows an example of the experience information acquired at thistime. If the time information acquired is 2003, Jul. 22, 17:30, it isregistered as “200307221730”, while the position information isexpressed as “605958, 1354536, 546) (60°59′58″ latitude, 135°45′36″longitude and 546 m altitude). Additionally, the information onattendant states, such as the weather information, transmitted from thebase station, is annexed. Moreover, if there is any fact that has becomeapparent from the information acquired before acquisition of theexperience information, such information is also annexed. In the presentconcrete example, this information is that pertinent to the accompanyingperson(s). The time information, acquired here, may be the correct timeinformation, contained in the GPS data, or may e.g. be “2003 Jul. 22night” or may be an abstract expression, such as “daytime”, “night”,“holiday” or “workday”. The position information may be a station name,a building name, a name of establishment or a common name accustomed tothe user, because these names may be taken out as more intelligible anduser friendly information when the user performs retrieval in theinformation exploitation phase.

FIG. 10 shows an example of the private information as entered by theuser. The private information is the overall evaluation, conditions ofsite, evaluation of the salespeople, evaluation of goods, atmosphere ofstore, pricing, time of supplying cooking and the more detailedevaluation on other conditions. Each evaluation may be recorded by thenumber of points actually entered by the aforementioned pushbutton typeinput keys.

The timing for the user to enter the private information (arrow C inFIG. 2) may be arbitrary, as described above. The private informationmay be added later to the acquired information. In the present concreteexample, the user may be prompted to input the private information bygenerating the sound or by vibrations when the user has finished theexperience in the restaurant 200, that is, when the user has moved fromthis restaurant to another place. There may, of course, be provided amode which allows for acquisition of the experience information or forinputting of the private information on the part of the user.

If, when the private information management device 1 has booted the CCDor the GPS in a step S1, and is in a standby state, a trigger isdetected, the private information management device 1 in a step S2 movesto a data formulating mode, and acquires the experience information. Theexperience information, acquired in a step S2, is recognized andprocessed as from a step S3. If the experience information acquired isimage data, the image recognition processing is carried out on imagedata acquired from the CCD 42 in a step S3. If the experienceinformation acquired is the image data, and the letter/characterinformation is contained in the image, the sentence recognition unit 47in a step S4 executes text recognition processing on image data acquiredfrom the CCD 42, and recognizes the letter/character string, in theimage, such as the letters/characters of e.g. a placard, and extractsthe name of the building or the sign as text data. If the experienceinformation acquired is the speech data, the speech recognitionprocessing unit 40 in a step S5 performs speech recognition processingon the acquired speech data. Then, in a step S6, the language processingunit 50 converts the speech information into text data and, in a stepS7, the keyword extraction unit 51 extracts the keyword from the textdata. The GPS data, acquired by the GPS 41, such as the position data orthe date/time data, and the text data, entered by the informationpresenting unit 35, may directly be used, and hence the privateinformation management device 1 proceeds to the next step.

In a step S8, the private information management device 1 accepts theinputting of the private information from the user. At this time, theinformation that could not be acquired as the experience information,such as the store name or store site, is entered simultaneously by theuser. However, the private information does not have to be entered atthis stage. The mode for the user to input only the private informationis also provided. The data obtained from the acquired information areclassified in a step S9 in accordance with the definitions.

The private information management device 1 in a step S10 generates thepredictive information inferable from the private information and theexperience information acquired. Data as the predictive information isalso classified based on the definitions. Data obtained from theinformation acquired and data as the predictive information areultimately stored in a step S11 in the database 53.

By the above processing, the experience information and the privateinformation of the user are put into order and stored in the database 53in such a manner as to permit facilitated retrieval. Thus, the aboveinformation, obtained through actual experience by the user, may bestored.

The case of exploiting the user's private information, registered in theinformation registration unit 10, is now explained with reference toFIGS. 2 and 8. Here, the case of the user retrieving the informationpertinent to restaurants is explained.

The private information management device 1 is supplied with informationretrieval conditions (arrow D in FIG. 2). The retrieval conditionssupplied may be automatically selected, with the keyword, contained inthe information, derived from the user's current state, as acquired bythe private information management device per se, as a retrieving key.In addition, the conditions directly entered by the user may be used.Among the techniques for a user to input the retrieving conditions,there are such techniques by manual inputting, from item to item, basedon the GUI for inputting the retrieving conditions, by speech input inkeeping with the guidance, and by simple utterance of the keyword. Inthe following, the case in which the retrieving condition is input fromthe user by speech is explained.

In a step S11, the private information management device 1 acquires theposition information of the current site, and the other information, bya method similar to that for the information registration phase. In thenext step S12, it is verified whether or not the retrieval condition hasbeen entered. If the retrieval condition has been entered by the user,the keyword is extracted, depending on the inputting method. In case theuser has entered the retrieval condition by speech, for example, in casethe user has uttered “restaurant with amicable atmosphere” to theprivate information management device 1, the speech recognition unit 48executes the speech recognition processing, and extracts the keywords“atmosphere”, “amicable” and “restaurant”.

The position information of the current site, acquired at this time, andthe other information, are referred to below as the current information.FIGS. 11 and 12 show the current information acquired in the step S11and the retrieval condition acquired in the step S12, respectively. Inassociation with the numbers of the acquired information, the timeinformation for Aug. 31, 2003, 12:10 is represented as “200308311210”,while the position information 58°59′20″ latitude, 135°42′40″ longitudeand 520 m altitude is represented as “585920, 1354240, 520”. Inaddition, the information pertinent to the attendant circumstances, suchas the weather information, transmitted from the base station, forexample, is acquired. The retrieval conditions, acquired by the privateinformation management device 1, are “good” atmosphere and name of theplace being the “restaurant”, as shown in FIG. 12. Thus, these data areadded to data used as the retrieval condition, such that the set of datashown in FIG. 13, including these data, becomes a keyword for theretrieval conditions.

The experience information, acquired in the step S12, is recognized andprocessed in the processing of a step S13 and in the following steps. Ifthe information is the experience data, the image recognition processingis carried out on image data acquired from the CCD 42 in the step S13.If the information is the image data and the letter/characterinformation is contained in the image, the sentence recognition unit 47in a step S14 executes the text recognition processing on the image dataacquired from the CCD 42. For example, the sentence recognition unit 47executes the text recognition processing on image data acquired from theCCD 42, and recognizes the letter/character string or the symbol in theimage, such as letters/characters in a placard, to extract the name ofthe building or the sign as text data. If the information is speechdata, the speech recognition processing unit 49 in a step S15 performsspeech recognition processing on the acquired speech data. In the nextstep S16, the language processing unit 50 converts the speechinformation into text data and, in the next step S17, the keywordextraction unit 51 extracts the keyword from the text data. If theinformation is text data or GPS data, processing transfers directly tothe next step 18. If no retrieval condition has been entered in the stepS12 from the user, processing similarly transfers directly to the nextstep 18.

In the step S18, the information including the retrieval conditions andthe information analogous with the retrieval conditions are extractedfrom the database 53, based on the current information extracted in thesteps S12 to S17 and the retrieving condition entered by the user. Forextracting the information retrieved from the database by the user, thedatabase management system used in the information registration unit 10is used. For example, memory base reasoning (MBR) and the distancebetween two points (Euclid distance) is used. As for the retrievingmethod, if such a case is found in which all items of the informationstored in the database are available, the evaluation values for theexperience entered by the user are prioritized, whereas, if the totalityof the items are not available, priority is placed on the items with ahigher degree of matching. The information of other experiences, havingevaluation values as specified by the retrieving conditions, input bythe user, may also be retrieved.

The information extracted by the data definition processing unit 52 asthe retrieving unit is presented in a step S19 to the user by text data,voice guide, image display, or combination thereof (arrow E in FIG. 2).

If the retrieving condition has been input by the user in the step S11,retrieval is carried out based on the keyword of the retrievingcondition. If the retrieving condition has not been input, retrieval iscarried out under a condition analogous to the current information. Forexample, if the current place is the restaurant, and the user visitedthis restaurant in the past, the result of evaluation at such past timeis presented. If the user did not visit this restaurant in the past, theinformation on a near-by restaurant the user visited in the past ispresented. If no retrieving condition has been entered, but the currenttime is the meal time, the information on the restaurant near the user'scurrent site is presented.

A data example, displayed as being the result of retrieval, is shown inFIG. 14. Retrieved results 001, 002, 003, 004 and 005 are displayedagainst the input current information and retrieving conditions. Ofthese result data, the results 001 to 004 are the information obtainedby experiences by the user. The result 005 is the data shown in FIG. 6.If the time is the evening later than 18.00, both the atmosphere and theevaluation are the “best”.

As for the display order, the contents of the retrieving conditions bythe user are prioritized. For example, if the “closeness” is input bythe user, the information of restaurants which are close to the currentsite is prioritized over the information of restaurants having a highevaluation.

With the present technique, data recorded in the schedule managementsoftware may be used. For example, if the user is scheduled to visit acertain place at a certain time on a certain date, and this schedule isregistered in the schedule management software, it is possible toextract the optimum route from the database 53 and the start targettime, from the database 53, for presentation to the user in advance.

Thus, the present private information management device 1, as describedabove, is able to store the information, experienced by the user, alongwith the information reminiscent of the experience. Since theinformation obtained on retrieving the data storage unit of the presentdevice is the information once experienced by the user, the informationobtained on retrieving the data storage unit by the present device isefficacious and of high utility as compared to the information obtainedby the technique of keyword retrieval on the network, such as theInternet. Moreover, the information reminds the user of the event he/sheexperienced in the past, and hence is more realistic than thegeneralized information obtained on retrieval on the network.

1. A computing device for storing private information, comprising atleast one processor and memory storing computer-readable instructionsthat, when executed by the at least one processor, perform a methodcomprising: receiving information regarding an environment around a userexperiencing a first event; processing the received information toobtain experience information pertinent to the first event; receivingprivate information provided by the user, wherein the privateinformation comprises at least one evaluation value of a plurality ofevaluation values assigned by the user to the experience informationpertinent to the first event experienced by the user; generatingpredictive information pertinent to a second event based on theexperience information and the private information, wherein the secondevent is different from the first event; and storing the predictiveinformation in association with the experience information and theprivate information in a manner which enables retrieval of informationfrom the predictive information, the experience information and theprivate information.
 2. The computing device of claim 1, wherein: the atleast one evaluation value relates to at least one item of theexperience information; and when at least one condition of the at leastone item changes, the predictive information comprises a predictedevaluation value of at least one second evaluation value pertinent tothe second event, wherein the predicted evaluation value is differentfrom the at least one evaluation value.
 3. The computing device of claim1, wherein the method further comprises: receiving at least oneretrieval condition from at least one computing device; and retrievinginformation from the experience information, the private information andthe predictive information, based on the at least one retrievalcondition.
 4. The computing device of claim 3, wherein the methodfurther comprises: providing the retrieved information to the at leastone computing device.
 5. The computing device of claim 3, wherein: theat least one retrieval condition is obtained by processing currentinformation regarding a current environment around the user.
 6. Thecomputing device of claim 5, wherein: the current information isselected from the group consisting of audio, audio/visual, visual andtextual data.
 7. The computing device of claim 1, wherein: receivinginformation on the environment around the user experiencing the firstevent comprises receiving the information from at least one computingdevice collecting the information from the environment; and receivingthe private information comprises receiving the private information fromthe at least one computing device for receiving the private informationfrom the user.
 8. A private information management device comprising: atleast one information acquisition component comprising a camera and amicrophone for acquiring experience information on an environment arounda user experiencing an event; at least one private information addingcomponent for adding private information, privately used by a user, tothe experience information, wherein the private information includes atleast one evaluation value of a plurality of evaluation values assignedby the user to the experience information pertinent to the eventexperienced by the user; at least one component for providing theexperience information and the private information to at least oneexternal device; at least one retrieval inputting component for:providing at least one retrieval condition to the at least one externaldevice, and in response to providing the at least one retrievalcondition to the at least one external device, receiving retrievedinformation from the at least one external device, wherein the retrievedinformation is retrieved based on the at least one retrieval conditionfrom information stored on the at least one external device comprisingthe experience information and the private information; and at least oneinformation presenting component for presenting the retrievedinformation to the user.
 9. The private information management device ofclaim 8, wherein: the at least one information acquisition componentacquires information on the environment around the user experiencing theevent in response to a trigger received from the environment.
 10. Theprivate information management device of claim 8, wherein: the at leastone information acquisition component acquires information on theenvironment around the user using a global positioning system.
 11. Theprivate information management device of claim 8, wherein: the at leastone retrieval condition is acquired from current information on acurrent environment around the user.
 12. The private informationmanagement device of claim 11, wherein: the current informationcomprises speech.
 13. The private information management device of claim11, wherein: the current information is selected from the groupconsisting of a current location of the user, a time at the currentlocation and information on weather at the current location.
 14. Theprivate information management device of claim 8, wherein: the at leastone retrieval condition is obtained from user input.
 15. The privateinformation management device of claim 14, wherein: the user inputcomprises speech.
 16. The private information management device of claim8, wherein: adding the private information privately used by the usercomprises receiving user input.
 17. The private information managementdevice of claim 8, wherein: presenting the retrieved information to theuser comprises displaying the retrieved information on a user interface.18. The private information management device of claim 8, wherein: theevent comprises a first event; and the retrieved information isretrieved based on the at least one retrieval condition from theinformation stored on the at least one external device furthercomprising predictive information pertinent to a second event andgenerated based on the experience information and the privateinformation, wherein the second event is different from the first event.19. The private information management device of claim 8, wherein: theat least one external device comprises a server.
 20. A computing devicefor storing private information, comprising at least one processor andmemory storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by theat least one processor, perform a method comprising: receivingexperience information regarding an environment around a userexperiencing an event; receiving private information provided by theuser, wherein the private information comprises at least one evaluationvalue of a plurality of evaluation values assigned by the user to theexperience information pertinent to the event experienced by the user;receiving predictive information pertinent to a second event, whereinthe predictive information is generated based on the experienceinformation and the private information, wherein the second event isdifferent from the first event; and storing the predictive informationin association with the experience information and the privateinformation in a manner which enables retrieval of information from thepredictive information, the experience information and the privateinformation.
 21. The computing device of claim 20, wherein: the at leastone evaluation value relates to at least one item of the experienceinformation; and when at least one condition of the at least one itemchanges, the predictive information comprises a predicted evaluationvalue of at least one second evaluation value pertinent to the secondevent, wherein the predicted evaluation value is different from the atleast one evaluation value.
 22. The computing device of claim 20,wherein the method further comprises: receiving at least one retrievalcondition from a private information management device; retrievinginformation from the experience information, the private information andthe predictive information, based on the at least one retrievalcondition; and transmitting the retrieved information to the privateinformation management device.
 23. The computing device of claim 20,wherein: receiving the experience information comprises receiving theexperience information from the private information management deviceconfigured to acquire the experience information from the environmentaround the user experiencing the event.
 24. The computing device ofclaim 20, wherein the method further comprises: generating thepredictive information.
 25. The computing device of claim 20, whereinthe method further comprises: receiving the experience information andthe private information from a private information management device.